What is alopecia areata?
Alopecia means hair loss. Alopecia areata, also called the spot baldness, is a condition in which hair is lost from some areas of the scalp, face or other parts of body resulting in a few bald spots on the scalp, eyebrows, beard or moustache area each about the size of a coin or more. It is an autoimmune disease.
Who gets Alopecia Areata?
Anybody can get this disease any age, any race. Men & women equally affected.
Why do you get it?
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease, where the body white blood cells get confused instead of attacking the infections; they attack their own body hair follicles, destroying it temporarily sometimes permanently. The exact cause for this autoimmune disease not known, some say it might be due to infections in the body or due to mental stress.
How does it appear?
It appears as a patchy hair loss, one or more coin-sized, round to oval, smooth, bald patches. This type of bald patches occurs mostly on the scalp. But it can involve eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, and sometimes other hairy areas of body. Patches vary in size.
In Alopecia Totalis, patients loose entire scalp hairs, eyebrows, and beard area. In Alopecia Universalis patients loose entire body hairs.
Nail problems: Alopecia areata also can affect your fingernails and toenails. Nails can have tiny pinpoint dents (pitting). They also can have white spots or lines, be rough, lose their shine, or become thin and split. Rarely nails change shape or fall off. Sometimes nail changes are the first sign of alopecia areata.
Types of alopecia areata:
Alopecia areata (hair loss in patches).
Alopecia totalis (lose all hairs on the scalp).
Alopecia universalis (lose all hairs on the body) happens to about 5 percent of people.
How long will it continue?
Hair often grows back but may fall out again in some. Mostly few patches or smaller patches improve within few months; large patches might take few years to improve.
Aggravating Factors:
Mental stress, Infections like dental caries, sore throat, urine infection, upper respiratory infections are known to aggravate this condition.
Injury & scratching
General information:
This condition is not infectious; it is not a fungal infection.
It is not hereditary.
Usually it is a self limiting condition with spontaneous recovery in few months.
Treatment:
There is no cure for alopecia areata as the hair often re-grows on its own. Treatment can help the hair re-grow more quickly.
Corticosteroids: This medicine suppresses the immune system. It can be given as shots, injecting the medicine into the places with hair loss or a topical form as a cream, lotion, or ointment.
Minoxidil: A hair re-growth medicine
Anthralin: This medicine alters the skin’s immune function.
Diphencyprone (DPCP): Here this treatment causes a small allergic reaction on the skin which tricks the immune system, thereby induces hair growth over the bald patches.
Initially this medicine (2% solution) is applied on the thigh to make the body recognize this medicine. Later after 10 days a minute concentration of the same medicine is applied on the bald patches to cause mild allergic reactions, which results in hair growth. This application is done once in 2 weeks for 1-3 months until there is some improvement.
PRP Therapy: Here patient own blood is drawn, centrifuged to separate the plasma rich platelet. This is injected back to the bald patches once in 2-4 weeks to get quick good results.
Patients often get more than 1 treatment at a time. A mix of 2 or more treatments often boosts success.
What is the treatment outcome?
Usually it takes 1-3 months to improve with initial fine hairs appearing, which becomes thick later on. Sometimes white hairs might replace the black hairs.
Even while taking treatment, patients can notice new bald patches appearing. Recurrences are common. No one can predict when the hair might re-grow or fall out again. Small & few bald patches usually recover within few months. Larger & multiple bald patches take more time to improve.
GENERAL MEASURES:
Mental stress is known to aggravate A.Areata, so meditation, yoga; positive thinking will help in avoiding recurrences & improving hair loss.
Regular dental check up for caries of teeth will prevent this condition from recurring.
Improving body immunity by eating healthy foods, maintaining healthy life style by eating on time, sleeping on time, exercising will help a lot in avoiding recurrences & recovering from this disease.
If you feel embarrassed by hair loss, there are things you can do to hide patchy hair loss:
Style your hair to cover the bald spots.
Wear a wig, cap, hat, or scarf. These do not interfere with hair re-growth
Use makeup to draw missing eyebrows.
Healthy body, Healthy skin & Hair